Municipal Bonds is delighted to announce Austin Thomas: In Constellation, an online exclusive exhibition of celestial monoprints, July 15 to September 30, 2020.
Initially, this exhibition’s purpose was an invitation to a respite, a moment of levity and meditation. Additionally, it has come to represent a conversation, between artist and gallery during the past months, about giving—we believe art and giving go hand-in-hand. It is our constellation: making and giving, presenting and representing. This exhibition is aligned with Thomas and Municipal Bonds’ partnership in ongoing fundraising. 20% of every sale will be donated to the pop-up food pantry organized by La Jornada and Together We Can Food Pantry at the Queens Museum.
Thomas’ monoprints convey a sense of buoyancy and hope. They are also rooted in the values of her environmental activism, using borrowed tools and recycling found materials, and furthered by her commitment to support social causes through her art. Thomas is an artist citizen: making, curating, teaching, helping others, and donating—she concentrates on contributing to the community around her.
Using concepts of curve and surface, Thomas’ work is graphically composed with unique impressions—clustered, overlapping, translucent—onto vintage papers. Thomas has developed a form of monoprinting that employs ghost marking, in which she prints several times on the same piece of found paper: book covers and pages, ledger sheets, and loose-leaf notebooks. Often marked by bold color, each spatial relationship plays with chance, shape, and the distinctive qualities of the material page. The resulting images combine spontaneity and precision, referring to modernist styles including Russian Constructivism, Minimalism, and Color Field painting.
“Working with geometric shapes and a limited palette, I want the ink to be like writing on the page of my own vernacular, describing night, nature, constellations, the enormity of the physical world, and the universe above. I look at the world around me as a creative space, listening, and observing. My goal is to make a visual language, while I want the viewer to insert their narrative into my work. I am inspired by the urban environment, particularly architecture and quotidian objects. I meditate a lot; therefore, my work is a practice of clarity. I love circles and distinctive geometric shapes, chance encounters, and repetition.” — Austin Thomas
Austin Thomas lives in New York City. Her work has been widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally. In New York, Thomas has been featured at: The Drawing Center, SculptureCenter, Art in General, White Columns, Morgan Lehman Gallery, and most recently at Wave Hill.
Thomas is a graduate of NYU, and has received numerous residencies and fellowships, including: Guttenberg Arts, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Smack Mellon, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Thomas is featured in the book titled Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists, and its sequel, The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, both edited by Sharon Louden. Thomas has been written about in: The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, The Paris Review, and Hyperallergic. Her work is in the American University Museum's permanent collection at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
- For sales and press enquiries, please contact Emily Miller at 917.450.0583 and info@municipalbonds.art
